Making A Mess Of Energy Policy

August 22, 2013

It is interesting how two Democrats can directly contradict each other, isn’t it? In June, President Barack Obama announced he will assume power traditionally reserved for Congress to battle global......

Comments

FedUpL8ly

All of those said communities against fracking remind me of the NIMBY (not in my backyard) types who oppose oil refineries but go ahead and use just as much gasoline, if not more, than anyone else. The U.S. has coal providing more electricity than any other source. Obama wants to eliminate coal, restrain/cut back oil production while pushing electric autos despite the fact that if we had as many electric cars on the road as Obama wants, many communities would experience power shortages when all those commuters got home and started recharging their cars. What can you expect from a community organizer who has failed to prove he ever passed a science course let alone took one.

StoneJarl

Terry Engelder, a geoscientist at Penn State, along with Gary Lash, a structural geologist at SUNY Fredonia are credited with calculating the potential volumes of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale in 2008. Mr. Engelder has emerged as a proponent of fracking.

Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, a professor of engineering at Cornell University, co-authored the Cornell Study of 2011 which states that the greenhouse gas footprint of fracking to be greater than even that of coal. Dr. Ingraffea is an opponent of fracking.

Currently NYS has a moratorium on fracking, Pennsylvania does not. PA,s experiences offer good examples of the current state of technology and its success and failure.

The area most benefited or harmed by fracking is the counties on either side of the NY/PA border at mid-state.

Further complicating the issue is that 50 communities in NY have passed their own ban on fracking and 100 more have passed moratoriums.

OMG2012

SeaDog "and what praytell are we supposed to do for energy?" That is a good question for you to ask Governor Cuomo and Yoko Ono before someone considers such a strategy. Industry owns the gas lines not The Governor and his financial supporters. I think I know how the pro industry folks would answer "drill responsibly" FedUp Pretty much my point.

FedUpL8ly

Seadog- OMG2012 comment could be taken either way. You could infer that if Cuomo really believed it was dangerous/harmful, then he should shut down the entire industry. But of course Cuomo wouldn't do that because there's no supporting evidence, just anecdotal conjecture. Cut the level of welfare benefits/social programs so that those getting public assistance don't live better than most workers and you'd have a much louder outcry from the public. Personally, Cuomo's no more of a hypocrite than all the rich celebrities/liberals protesting coal, oil, nuclear and natural gas production while they fly around in their private jets.

DavidVA

I live very near Virginia coal contry, where any talk of ending the use of coal in the next 5 centuries is an uacceptable heresy. Like it or not, it's on it's way out. Given that, gas is an imperfect but preferential fuel, and fracking seems to be the only option to obtain it. The Marcellus Shale formations are going to be exploited, again - like it or not. I guess it comes down to how much negative effect you can tolerate to get it.

I don't live in the Jamestown area anymore, so I'm not a credible source of opinion on that. Is it worth the risk?

OMG2012

My answer to the authors question..."Highly unlikely". I think NYS should stop being hypocritical on the natural gas issue and ban all importation of natural gas into the NYS and demand that the 5000 plus gas well's in NYS be immediately plugged and properly abandoned.